Transcript of "Columbus and the WordPress Community"

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WORDPRESSCOMMUNITYAN OVERVIEW OF WHO AND WHAT DRIVES THE WORDPRESSCOMMUNITY, AND WHERE YOU FIT IN-Angie Meeker, @angiemeeker ColumbusWPMeetup | Third Thursday every month www.meetup.com/wp-columbus/ 1

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www.wordpress.orgABOUT WORDPRESSWordPress is an Open Source project, which meansthere are hundreds of people all over the worldworking on it. (More than most commercialplatforms.) It also means you are free to use it foranything from your cat’s home page to a Fortune500 web site without paying anyone a licensefee and a number of other important freedoms.SO IT’S BEEN AROUND FOREVER, RIGHT?Not really. WordPress was born out of a desire for an elegant, well-architectured personalpublishing system built on PHP and MySQL and licensed under the GPLv2 (or later). It is theofficial successor of b2/cafelog. b2 was launched in 2001, WordPress in 2003. ColumbusWPMeetup | Third Thursday every month www.meetup.com/wp-columbus/ 2

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Names to Know Matt Mullenwag Automattic WordCamp Founder, WordPress For-Profit Company Not-For-Profit ConferencesThe WordPress Foundation, A for-profit entity that offers WordCamps are casual,a non-profit founded by services based around locally-organizedMatt, furthers development WordPress. WordPress.com, conferences centeredof WordPress and protects Akismet, Gravatar, around all things WordPressthe trademarks and brand. VaultPress are a few examples. ColumbusWPMeetup | Third Thursday every month www.meetup.com/wp-columbus/ 3

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So Who Makes WordPress?WordPress is continuously made and remade by a core team of developers,along with contributions of code from community members like you and I. Lead Contributing Developers Developers Design Documentation Team and SupportTo meet the actual people on Developersthese teams, visit Emeritihttp://wordpress.org/about/ ColumbusWPMeetup | Third Thursday every month www.meetup.com/wp-columbus/ 4

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WHO ELSE?The core code doesn’t function by itself, though. What makes WordPressamazing are the themes and plugins which make it an extensible CMS. 70+ 1500+ 19000+ language translations of free themes free plugins WordPress in the repo in the repoSomeone has to review them Plugins submitted by the Localization teamsto ensure they’re GPL community are reviewed by work to ensure every personcompliant and up to Plugin Managers who wants WordPress canWordPress standards. have it, no matter whatTheme Review language they speak. ColumbusWPMeetup | Third Thursday every month www.meetup.com/wp-columbus/ 5

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All Of These Moving Parts…Where can you go for help? wordpress.org Wordpress.org /forum /codex HELP! WordPress WordPress Meetups Community Online ColumbusWPMeetup | Third Thursday every month www.meetup.com/wp-columbus/ 6

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Things to remember at WordPress.orgThe forum IS moderated, but volunteers also contribute heavily. The Codex iswritten both by people paid to write and volunteers. We’re in this together. DO DON’T Give a link to your site. Talk in ALL CAPS! IT’S LIKE YELLING! Be a good Be specific and member of Say things like, You descriptive. It’s ok. the are supposed to help! WordPress community Be afraid to ask Say thank you. for help. ColumbusWPMeetup | Third Thursday every month www.meetup.com/wp-columbus/ 7

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Other Sites You Might LoveThe people in the WordPress community are incredibly giving of their timeand talents. Here are a few sites you should check out. ma.tt weblogtoolscollection.com WPTavern.com WordPress.StackExchange.com WPCandy.com nacin.com WPBeginner.com pippinsplugins.com/ Lorelle.wordpress.com wpmututorials.com/ MyNameIsAngie.com wordpress.org/news/ CopyBlogger.com wordpress.tv/ planet.wordpress.org/ ColumbusWPMeetup | Third Thursday every month www.meetup.com/wp-columbus/ 9

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Where Does Our Meetup Fit?Some meetups are specific to skill/interest (users, developers, themedesigners, etc) while others are general interest groups that touch on all topicsaround publishing with and developing for WordPress.For Beginners For Power Users For DevelopersEvery month, we will Attend on a regular Practice your skills byoffer a separate group basis to sharpen your helping others, sharingfor those who need a skills. Ask for specific what you know, orwalk through of basics. subjects; be prepared meeting up with otherWe can’t cover to ask for help on devs to work oneverything in one specific projects. projects.month though!We are planning presentations by core contributors,and WordPress community members from outside Central Ohio, too. ColumbusWPMeetup | Third Thursday every month www.meetup.com/wp-columbus/ 10

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Our Meetup Grows Our WordCampWordCamp Columbus, July 14-15 at the Ohio State University Unionis driven by the members and participants of our Meetup To Know What’s Needed 1 Gauging the experiences of our Meetup users helps us to know what sessions to offer Meetup To Share Content 2 We’ll always bring in national WordPressers to challenge us, but locals make up majority of speakers To Fund the Event 3 Whether you’re a sponsor, helping to find a sponsor, sharing the event, or volunteering WordCamp ColumbusMeetup | Third Thursday every month www.meetup.com/wp-columbus/ 11

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WordCamps are not-for-profit eventsNone of the speakers are paid. The organizers aren’t paid. The volunteersaren’t paid. The more we collect in sponsorships, the more we can do forattendees. $16,000 Approximate cost of the 2012 WordCamp Columbus $5000 = Sponsorships We have $2100 already from national sponsors. 230 tickets x$45 =$10,350 This is an increase of 65 tickets from 2011. ColumbusWPMeetup | Third Thursday every month www.meetup.com/wp-columbus/ 12

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HOW YOU CAN JOIN USIf you are interested, please tweet your interest to @wordcampcbus,email columbus@wordcamp.org. Sponsor or Help Us Find Sponsors 1 You can direct potential sponsors to our website www.2012.columbus.wordcamp.org for info Volunteer on one of these teams 2 Volunteers, sponsors, content, registration, technical, design, website, marketing, genius bar, after party and documentation Share, Share, Share 3 Tell other people about WordCamp Columbus. Many there last there have well-running sites, businesses or jobs now as a result. ColumbusWPMeetup | Third Thursday every month www.meetup.com/wp-columbus/ 13